External Pages presents a newly commissioned piece by Rhea Dillon titled Uchronia et Uchromia.

By taking the form of an online questionnaire, Uchronia et Uchromia highlights the process of being questioned in the context of the Black experience today.

This title combines ‘Uchronia’, meaning an alternate history or hypothetical time period, with François Laruelle’s ‘Uchromia’ which is “to learn to think from the point of view of Black as what infuses color, in the last instance, rather than what limits it.” There’s a phonetical resonance too, as it sounds like uchronia ‘ate’ uchromia, which suggests the violence Black people are subject to as well as the ways in which Black culture is exploited.

Questionnaires are a tool used by many institutions across society such as entrance exams in education, which operate as gatekeeping mechanisms. By adopting this framework, ideas of power, control and inequality come to the fore. Referencing how her own experiences shaped the artwork, Dillon emphases that the endless supply of questions that demand existential and fugitive thinking represents “the interrogation of a Black person in our society: there are hardly ever any answers, or information.”

The interactivity of the artwork speaks to Françoise Vergès writing on the invisibility of the Black and Brown cleaners in the capitalocene: “The performing male neoliberal body has another kind of “phantom” body that enables his limitless performance.” The questionnaire acts as its own kind of limitless performance, as to experience the exhibition the viewer is required to answer questions with no indication of the quantity or duration ahead.

externalpages.org/#rheadillon